Monthly Archives: January 2017

Must have been the four kids that helped accelerate it. As a wise woman once told me, when you have kids, “the days are long but the years are short.”

Four kids makes each day seem the length of two but you can fall asleep on the couch for a second and another year passes.

Our double number celebration was also celebrated twice.

First we scored tickets to Hamilton. Despite the fact that I went online to order them the minute the ticket sales opened, I still was only able to purchase them 4 days away from my day of choice. I was lucky for even that. As I was waiting for Ticketmaster to tell me, over and over again that my choice was sold out, I was able to check on Stubhub and see they were already reselling at 4x the price.

So, this past Wednesday, we went to see what could have possibly won 11 Tony Awards including Best Musical of the year.

On a tip from the head of Adam’s department we downloaded the music beforehand. It was a tip worth sharing, as I think I got double the enjoyment by hearing a few times first.

I would have to say it was the most amazing musical I’d seen since Phantom of the Opera, which also swept the Tony’s in 1988.

I’d also like to note that I played it for Jack one day after school and when the song, “My Shot” came on he said, “I know this song. They did it during the winter show at our school.” Now that is a very fine, “Fine Arts” school that he attends!

Then, on our actual anniversary, we headed over to Wicker Park to check out Pub Royale.

It was named in the “5 Best Bars of 2016” by Bon Appetit. I also saw it on Check Please, with all participates regarding their experience with glowing reviews.

Lamb Dumplings

It served Anglo-Indian fare. So basically really good beer with Indian food in a pub atmosphere. Just the fact that I could get great Indian food AND great drinks in one place filled me with heart-palpitating excitement.

The food was excellent, so was the beverage selection. I also appreciated how they managed to capture a very specific vibe. Servers with copious amounts of facial hair, donning ski caps along side warm, dark, pub-like decor with odd accents like motorcycles and peacocks as well as ‘all gender’ bathrooms made for a very Generation Z experience.

We tried a few things from their favorites menu, all which were delicious. I also supplemented with some pot stickers and home made sushi. Most of the kids managed to eat some kind of dinner, though I’m not sure how nutritionally sound it was.

But all of them managed dessert! The Bransfield’s brought a lovely key lime pie and cookies from Sweet Mandy Bs and we also brought out the Chinese new year themed desserts…

The Hong Bao, or traditional red envelope, that you give out this time of year had an untraditional surprise for the kids in them. Instead of real money, Chinese chocolate coins!

Photo Bombed!

We had this beautiful moment of calm while we enjoyed all these wonderful treats followed by absolute mayhem from the sugar high it caused.

Battle of adult against kids.

This year of the Rooster is suppose to bring resolve, so if you were postponing any projects, now is the time to get them done.

Gong Hei Fat Choy! Xin Nian Quai Le! May the year of the Rooster bring you much diligence and achievement!

We used to do it annually, until we had four kids and traveling to Florida to see my parents became too costly and too difficult.

In fact, it has been 4 years since we last visited my home town.

I still have nightmares about that last attempt, the moment in the airport when Adam was getting frisked by a stranger while I was holding two wiggling 8 months old, one in each arm, and Ben decided clothing was optional.

A lot can change in four years, right?

This year we realized that the older kid’s winter break was so long that they actually started to hit into the cheaper fares. After January 4th, prices go way down.

Two weeks ago we flew to the land of beaches and sun. The area where almost all of my support group lives within driving distance of each other.

Instead of sitting indoors hiding from the cold, battling crowded museums, or visiting “pay to play” spaces, we enjoyed fun in the sun.

We spent a day at the beach. (So did everyone else.)

Burying ourselves was one of the activities.

See Ben in the background burying himself while the others bury each other? Results…

Grandpa taught them all to body surf.

Many days were spent at the pools. Lots of pools. The heated hotel pool with it’s warm jacuzzi meant even when the temperature dropped we could still enjoy splashing about.

First night in, we hit the pool right away. Playing in the pool late at night reminded me fondly of my own childhood.

Another day Adam went cycling with my father while I entertained the kids at the hotel pool.

Ben showing off his floating skills…

My father’s heated pool in his communities complex was another great option.

Cannon Ball!!!

Here the older boys are trying, unsuccessfully to get Adam off the giant pizza float.

Even the non heated pools at my father’s and mother’s house were fair game.

My childhood pool, weird to watch my own kids swim in it!

We also visited Gumbo Limbo, a nature center full of aquatic life. We watched them feeding the marine life. We saw the turtles they saved and were rehabbing.

Thanks to them and my Aunt Doris, Adam and I were able to work out, go running AND eat at both La Nouvelle Mason and Abe and Louie’s.

Besides all THAT food, we also enjoyed a Brazillian buffet that mom suggest, a trip to Olive Garden, and a picnic of my much missed publix deli sandwiches.

Mom see the kids for the first time at the Brazilian Buffet.

Olive Garden kids menu stickers.

Beach picnic with Publix sandwiches

And room service, everyone’s favorite!

Rainbow out our window while we eat room service.

In fact, just being in a hotel room instead of our house was a great source of joy for all.

We got a visit in with Uncle David too. He entertained them tirelessly and they left bearing all sorts of flea market finds from him. Jack described Uncle David’s house as one of the best parts of his trip.

David greets the boys as ‘snake man’.

The last night the older boys slept at my father’s house. In the morning we packed up the stuff and came up with an elaborate plan on how we would get the stuff in the car. Then we looked around and realized we only had two kids, and we didn’t need elaborate plans, two kids was completely stress free!

We came back relaxed and depressed about getting back to regular schedule. I’m missing Florida already!

I think the normal thing to do after an exhausting 8 night of Hanukkah is to rest easy for a few days, right?

But not us. We are the Calisoffs.

Instead of a quiet day playing collectively with our 32+ new toys, we decided to invite 5 of Jack’s buddies over to play his new Capture the Flag game.

It’s a glow in the dark game, so you play at night.

We started the game three against three.

Here is the very enthusiastic green team.

And the less enthusiastic blue team.

I quickly learned why green was so much more enthusiastic than blue when Jack captured the first three flags in like 10 minutes.

So we had to switch up the groups again and again until they were evenly matched.

Then Adam jumped in and we added another kid.

He was quickly put in jail.

Jail, a good place to rest.

While this is all happening, we also had this circus clown car driving in the periphery.

Finally we headed back home for pizza.

And dessert.

I thought after 2 hours of running the boys would be tired but no, they weren’t even close.

They spent the next two hours playing tag with a ballon and pool noodles up and down our two floors, using the back stairwell as a second set of stairs. With the extra stairs you could never quite tell who was up and who was down.

Maybe after all this running Adam and I will finally have a night where one of the four kids (mostly Ben) doesn’t come and wake us up in the middle of the night!